“You have got to be kidding me,” Sam said, giving his reflection in the mirror a dubious look.

The mousy brunette who was fidgeting with his costume huffed a sigh for what must have been at least the tenth time- always in response to his complaints. “You were the one who said you wanted to try this. It’s not my fault you bailed on Diana and then she decided to go to the Con alone. This is the best disguise I have right now!”

“But do I have to be a girl?” He plucked at the skirt he wore, his frown only growing. “C’mon, Hanna, you have to have something else. It’s a theatre at a college for god’s sake.”

“Well, sure. We have tons of costumes- for Shakespeare plays and boring shit. Dude, you’re lucky I was working on this for Diana. It’s not like we shoot scenes for anime here,” Hanna scoffed, pushing her glasses up with the back of her wrist so she wouldn’t smear makeup on her face.

Sam fidgeted, feeling stifled in the leggings and that god damned skirt. Which was actually… not as bad as he would have thought. But still- he was a boy! Granted, a boy who enjoyed cosplay thanks to his girlfriend who dragged him to every Con in the surrounding states and his weirdo of a brother. That didn’t mean he had to dress like a girl… right?

“Oh, just stop complaining and duck down a little so I can get the wig on,” Hanna commanded.

Huffing an irritated sigh, Sam dropped down into one of the chairs, tipping his head back so Hanna could tame his hair and slip the curly blonde wig on to cover his vibrant red hair.

“Right, can you put contacts in yourself, or do I have to do it?”

“What? I thought her eyes were red!” Sam tried to get away, but gave up on his attempts when all he did was make his chair wobble.

Hanna gave him another, almost disgusted, look. “They’re pinkish red. Your eyes are coppery. Have you even seen the show?”

“No. The hell would I watch a harem anime for?”

“But you wrote doujins for it! How can you not know what the main character looks like?”

“Well it wasn’t like the girl was involved,” Sam scoffed, settling back into the chair and holding a hand out for the contacts. He’d tried contacts once, before the surgery- since he only had to wear glasses in class, he didn’t bother with the contacts anymore. But at least he knew how to put them in.

“How the hell was the girl not involved? It’s a harem!”

Sam raised an eyebrow at her, one eye pinkish and the other still his bright copper color. Hanna’s face turned red when she realized what he meant; there was only one way you could write a doujin about harem characters without the girl they revolved around. “Okay, ew. I mean, not that I see anything wrong with guys who like to boink each other, but god I’m glad I’ve never read any of your work,” Hanna said, shaking her head, “One is bad enough to look at, two must be just totally gross.”

“Boink?” Sam repeated, amused. Hanna steadfastly ignored him as she pinned the flowers in the loose curls of the wig and fluffed her fingers in it so that it sat properly around his shoulders.

“Stand, shoes,” she said briskly, her face still flaming red.

Sam tried to hide his smirk as he did what she asked. She’d dressed him for Cons enough that he knew it was better just to do as she asked; of course, before, she’d always taken his gender into consideration when it came to costumes. Unfortunately, if he wore the costume they’d rented for the occasion, Diana would spot him in a heartbeat.

He tried not to frown too heavily as he remembered saying he didn’t have the time for it, that his brother couldn’t get them passes, so that he could go by himself. He’d just wanted to try it on his own once. But then, magically, Diana came up with her own pass anyways. Having already promised to work at his brother’s booth, he didn’t have the option of backing out. That meant incognito. But it also meant using whatever costume Hanna had on hand.

And of course the only one of Diana’s costumes left at the theatre was for a wilting flower of a pathetic character from a god damn harem anime.

“If anybody tries to bite my neck, I swear to god I will kill you,” Sam grumbled as Hanna did the final touches on his makeup.

Hanna snickered at the thought of somebody walking up and biting him, making Sam’s scowl deepen. “Oh, stop complaining and just look in the mirror,” she said, pulling him up out of the chair and spinning him to face it. Sam’s mouth fell open as he stared in the reflective glass, shocked by the magic Hanna had worked yet again.

He was the spitting image of that idiot girl from top to bottom. The bows on his chest hid the fact that he was flat, and the leggings he wore made his legs look even more slender than they naturally were. He’d always been mocked for looking feminine; at least now there was a reason for it.

“God, I am never going to live this down if anybody realizes it’s me,” Sam groaned, resisting the urge to sweep his fingers back through his hair, like he always did when he was frustrated or worried. Hanna had already warned him- threatened him, really- that it was a bad idea.

Hanna snorted, fixing the skirt again. “Nobody’s going to realize it’s you. Except for your brother. And you know he’ll enjoy this,” she snickered.

It was Sam’s turn to flush, and it was clear on his face since he’d been pale enough without using coverup. Yes, his brother was going to enjoy seeing him dressed like a girl. God, but the man was like every older brother in every trashy yaoi manga; he had the most ridiculous brother complex. And sure, maybe Sam had accidentally fed into it when he was too young to understand what ‘playing doctor’ really meant. But he was eighteen, in college! His brother should have gotten over it already.

He had a feeling that no matter how old they got, he’d always be fending off his brother’s attacks.

Sam yelped and jumped as something vibrated, and scrambled to get his phone out of the waistband of his skirt where Hanna had said to hide it. “Yeah?” he asked, pressing it close to his ear while Hanna fussed with the jacket he wore.

“Are you getting your perky ass down here or not?”

He sighed at the sound of his brother’s familiar voice. “Yeah, yeah, keep your panties on,” he sniffed.

“Oh, I think you’re the one with panties on.”

“You told him?!” Sam yelped, giving Hanna a betrayed, hurt look.

Hanna grinned as she stepped away from him. “You betcha. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat because he said he’ll let me in on the next shoot.”

Sam sighed and rolled his eyes; Hanna was always trying to bust into his brother’s video shoots, to do costuming and use it to boost her portfolio. “Whatever. I’ll be there in twenty, Sal,” he said, before flipping the phone closed.

Saying his brother’s name always irritated him slightly- at their parents, not at him. Sal and Sam, how original. But, he wasn’t going to use his brother’s nickname in front of Hanna- Sal would kill him. Though at that moment, Sam was starting to think he wouldn't mind it by the end of the day.

Resisting the urge to yell at Hanna for betraying him early, Sam slipped the phone back into the tight waist of the skirt. “I gotta go,” he said, snatching up the stupid little purse thing that was supposed to hold everything else he needed- the three different passes he used to get in and out of places, as well as his wallet and the keys to his car.

“Wait!”

Sam turned to look over his shoulder, and was momentarily blinded by the flash of the camera. Hanna grinned at him as she lowered it. “There, now you can go.”

Muttering under his breath, he turned and hurried to leave. If he’d known how many people would flirt with him and try to grab his ass, he might have given up on the Con and just tried for the next one. If he’d known how famous he would become, a nationwide sensation when it came to cosplay of both sexes, he definitely would have turned back.

And if knew he was going to get sucked in by his brother and suckered into working with a temperamental asshole of a mangaka, he would never have gone to another Con again.

Luckily- or, perhaps, it was a lack of luck that had him walking out of that theatre in kitten heels- he didn’t know any of it. And just that first time was more than enough to get him addicted to the rush. His one accidental cosplay would turn into many, many more. Until the fateful day when he met a man who would change his life- and it’s still arguable about whether it was for better or worse.